NITTA OR NUTTA NUT.--The native African name of the seeds of _Parkia Africana_, a tree of the sensitive-tree section of the bean family (_Leguminosæ_). It grows about forty feet high, and has compound winged leaves. It has become naturalized in the West Indies. The pods grow in clusters, the seeds imbedded in a yellowish, sweet pulp, like the carob or St. John's bread, and the negroes are very fond of them. In the Soudan the seeds are roasted, and then allowed to ferment in water until they are soft and putrid, after which they are washed, pounded and dried, then made up into cakes to be used as a sauce for different kinds of food. It is supposed that the African traveler, Mungo Park, first brought these seeds or nuts to the notice of Europeans, and Robert Brown named the genus _Parkia_ in his honor. NUTMEG.--A name applied to the fruits of a large number of trees, and of different orders of plants. The true nutmegs of commerce are the fruits of trees belonging to the genus _Myristica_, and of the family _Myristicaceæ_. The oldest and best known of these is the _M. fragrans_, a small, widely branching tree, growing twenty to twenty-five feet high, and supposed to be indigenous to the Indian Archipelago. The fruit is about the size of an ordinary walnut, with a thick rind, which, upon opening, at maturity, discloses a reddish aril covering the nut within. This aril or husk is the mace of commerce, while the true nutmeg is the center or hard seed (nut). The Brazil nutmeg is longer than the true species, and is sold under the name of long nutmeg, and is the fruit of _M. fatua_. Another species, the _M. otoba_, is cultivated in Madagascar, but is scarcely known in commerce. Another species, the _M. sebifera_, is a common tree in the forests of Guiana, North Brazil, and up into Panama. It is utilized principally for the oil extracted from the nuts, obtained by macerating them in water, the oil rising to the surface, and as it cools skimmed off. The seeds of several species of conifers and laurels are known, either locally or in commerce, as nutmegs, or are used as a substitute for the true nutmeg. There are three different kinds of trees, native of Guiana, in addition to the one already named, the seeds of which are employed as a spice or medicine. One of these is the _Acrodiclidium camara_. These nuts are known in commerce as "Ackawai nutmegs," and are used mainly as a cure for diarrhœa and colic. Another is the seed of the _Aydendron Cujumary_ tree, and they are known in commerce as "Cujumary beans," although they are not, strictly speaking, a bean, and the same is true of the so-called "Puchurim beans," from the same country, for they are the fruit of _Nectandy Puchury_, a small tree of the laurel family. They are used as a tonic, and considered highly stimulating. _Clove Nutmeg_, or Madagascar nutmeg of commerce, is the fruit of _Agathophyllum aromaticum_, a small evergreen tree, indigenous to Madagascar.